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Title:
Jane Austen: Frederic and Elfrida
Series:
----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Satire
Pages:
9
Words: 2K
Publish: 1787
Brona has graciously agreed to continue to host the #ReadingAusten into 2026 as some of us (ie, me) had more Austen to read. The link to her master post with all the various posts by Austen readers can be found at the end after my avatar. So thank you Brona, I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
For whatever reason, unlike some of the previous Juvenilia works where I felt that they never should have been released and was almost embarrassed to read them, Frederic & Elfrida was simply hilarious and a wonderful short story parody. I chortled my way through all 9 pages and laughed my head off at the end where Elfrida gets Frederic to finally marry her by having fainting spells.
It is little stories like this that keep me reading this Juvenilia stuff. I feel like I am a better man for reading the cast off writings of a 12 year old girl from almost 250 years ago. Ain’t life grand!? :-D
★★★☆☆
Synopsis
Elfrida and Frederic are cousins who were born on the same day, grew up together, and were very much alike. It is not surprising that their parents determine they should be married. Austen skips around to introduce Elfrida’s friend, Charlotte, who is visiting her aunt when she receives a letter from Elfrida requesting that she purchase Elfrida a bonnet. Charlotte is a very amiable young woman, so of course, she obliges.
When Charlotte returns home and is welcomed back “with the greatest Joy” by Elfrida and Frederic, they take a walk and spy two girls, Jezalinda and Rebecca, the daughters of Mrs. Fitzroy, and a friendship develops.
After the meeting with the Fitzroys, the last few pages breeze by, with a relationship frowned upon then embraced (frowned upon because Mrs. Fitzroy thought the couple too young for matrimony at 36 and 63) and a melodramatic suicide following one character’s acceptance of two marriage proposals seemingly within a “short time” of one another, meaning more like hours or even minutes. Meanwhile, a wedding date is never set for Elfrida and Frederic, and when time passes and Frederic seems almost lost to her, Elfrida secures her desired outcome through fainting fits.
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